In 2000, Logan Mehl-Laituri enlisted in the Army, training as an Artillery Forward Observer. He reenlisted in 2002, declining a “Green to Gold” ROTC scholarship in favor of a combat deployment with his comrades in the 25th Infantry Division. During his 14 month tour of duty in Iraq, he saw action in every major city except Baghdad and Fallujah. These experiences yielded moral conflict, and in 2006, Mehl-Laituri applied for noncombatant conscientious objector status. Following his Honorable Discharge, he became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and completed a Master of Theological Studies degree at Duke University. His reflections were published in a memoir, Reborn on the Fourth of July.